The Pond at Central Park

The Pond is the first major landscape feature visitors encounter when entering Central Park from the southeast corner at Grand Army Plaza, a tranquil body of water surrounded by rocky outcrops and weeping willows that immediately transports visitors from the commercial intensity of Midtown into Olmsted and Vaux's pastoral vision.

Gapstow Bridge, the stone arch bridge spanning the northern end of the Pond, is one of the most photographed spots in Central Park. The view from the bridge, looking south toward the Plaza Hotel and the towers of Midtown reflected in the water, has appeared in countless films and postcards.

The Pond supports a variety of waterfowl including mallards, wood ducks, and migrating species that use the water body as a rest stop during their journeys along the Atlantic Flyway. Turtles and fish populate the water beneath the surface.

The Hallett Nature Sanctuary, a four-acre woodland preserve on the rocky peninsula at the Pond's southern edge, was closed to the public for over 80 years before reopening in 2016 after ecological restoration by the Central Park Conservancy.

The Pond provides the essential first impression of Central Park: within steps of the taxis and storefronts of 59th Street, the city vanishes and the park's illusion of natural landscape begins, exactly as Olmsted and Vaux intended 165 years ago.